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‘Most Daring Thing We Can Do’: Dua Lipa Reveals How She Challenged Herself To Write For Radical Optimism
With her upcoming third album, Radical Optimism, Dua Lipa has quite different expectations than her last album, Future Nostalgia.
The Houdini singer spoke with Variety about her upcoming album Radical Optimism. During the conversation, the 28-year-old also discussed her musical journey so far. When asked how she came up with the idea for the album, Lipa explained, “Over the past few years, radical optimism has felt like something that truly speaks to me. Throughout both my previous record and this one, I felt that the theme was always about growing from every experience, viewing everything as a gift or a lesson, regardless of how good or bad it was, and realizing that even the worst circumstances can lead to something amazing or help me become a stronger or better person.”
Dua Lipa pushes her boundaries in the new album
This, in Dua’s opinion, was what drove her in a lot of different directions. “Being uncomfortable, unexpected, and in moments when you don’t think are the places where you grow the most, which is why I believe I talk about being outside of your comfort zone a lot. ‘This wasn’t supposed to happen, but it does. How do you adapt in those moments? How do you walk through the fire? How do you push through?’ That element of being uncomfortable resonated with me.”
Elaborating upon what she considered uncomfortable in life, she said, “It can be anything, such as a breakup, a relationship at work or personally, a friendship, an issue at home, or, if you are on tour and your freight cargo is lost, the loss of all your outfits. Anything could be the cause. Life is incredibly unpredictable; people and things can surprise you anytime. My favorite trait would be the ability to keep an open mind in the face of setbacks and disappointments rather than giving up and declaring that I will never trust anyone again. That is not how life is meant to be lived. If you are the victim of someone acting maliciously, wrongly, or for any other reason and they are out there, perhaps they were meant to be. It is intended for you to see it and experience it. I’m appreciative of that, then.”
Radical Optimism is all set to release on May 3. Dua says the Brit-pop genre inspires this record, and she has done her experiments with it. “In my opinion, the Britpop aspect that truly resonated with me was the freedom and energy embodied by records by Oasis, Massive Attack, Portishead, and Primal Scream. I adore the research that went into it. Of course, the record is pop. I’m a pop artist; that’s my profession. Overall, though, I believe that by experimenting with various sounds, musical pauses, and sampled music—whether it be from Kevin’s voice or one of the many instruments we played—I was able to step outside of my comfort zone and discover new territory. And that’s what my inspiration gave me,” the singer stated.
How did Brit-pop inspire Dua Lipa?
The singer also discussed how her pandemic music was not planned to be released in the manner it did. However, that did not stop them from being a big hit. “I had the idea that the record would be released when people could have been out and about, dancing, enjoying a disco record in a club. And it was the complete opposite,” the 28-year-old explains while occupying a conference room in a hotel in West Hollywood. When Nostalgia first surfaced during the pandemic, it resonated unexpectedly. It started living on its own. “it alone demonstrated to me that everything exists in its own way, for its own particular reason, and for its own purpose. As long as I’m of service and the music is there, and it’s a soundtrack for a moment in time or someone’s life, then I’ve done what I was supposed to do.”
Released in March 2020, Future Nostalgia struck a chord with listeners worldwide looking to get away from the depressing atmosphere of quarantine, propelling hits like Levitating and Don’t Start Now up the charts. For Lipa, it was a turning point that propelled her to the next level of pop success. However, she used a different strategy with Radical Optimism. While on her Future Nostalgia Tour in 2022, she started recording the album, spending the weekends in the studio with Kevin Parker, Tobias Jesso Jr., and Danny L. Harle of Tame Impala. Her inspiration came mainly from the energy of Britpop and the notion that adopting a radical optimism may be a constructive, even “daring,” course of action.
Talking about how different it is to write upbeat music about difficult situations, she said, “For me, the most important thing is to realize that even in the worst of situations, there is always hope. When I’m going through a difficult time, or something is going wrong, I always tell myself that I’ll look back on that period in a few months and be grateful that I made it through. I decided to face the issue head-on rather than run away or ignore it, whatever it may be. That’s how I developed. I used to say, at least, that when I was sad, it was much simpler for me to write music. It’s actually much harder to write about something profound and emotional but still upbeat when you’re joyful, though, without feeling like you’re compromising yourself or turning it into a corny pop song or something. Consequently, it’s not always easy to maintain optimism. However, it’s the most crucial component because it will get us to the next phase.”
As fans might anticipate from Lipa, the resultant album is vibrant, upbeat, and new, pushing the boundaries of the disco-pop hit Nostalgia into more experimental realms. Optimism is put in motion with the lead singles Houdini and Training Season, both fast-paced dance anthems that complement the album’s overall style. A few months before the album’s release, Lipa talked with Variety about how she challenged herself to write from a place of conviction and paved the way for Optimism.
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